Telecommuters and small business owners will tell you that one side effect of working out of your home is that work and home start to merge into one fully connected life. You might shoot for a standard 8-hour day, but it’s easier to keep working when you’re sitting on your couch in yoga pants and a favorite shirt that misses the business-casual code by commuter’s mile.

I have a rule about working from home.

I have two sets of mugs in my cabinet. The first set, the boring brown, are my weekday workday mugs. They’re plain and solid and serviceable. They hold the standard amount of coffee. In fact, they look like drip coffee with milk and two sugars.

That second set is coffee-housey, all mismatched sizes and vibrant colors and artsy phrases. They have character and heft. There are two mugs with noses, one remaining purple latte mug from a set I bought in my 20s, and a simple handcrafted mug some thoughtful cousins gave me the Christmas after Mom died. There’s a brilliant red mug from a bridesmaid who became a yoga teacher, and two handmade mugs from an aunt-by-choice who went through a pottery phase.

These are my weekend mugs. These mugs look like a mocha with a good friend.

(The red one looks like tea. It was meant for tea.)

The beauty of this rule is that I can break it. On a workday when I’m a little tired and a little stressed and thinking that working from home is fantastic for days when I’m grouchy and might inadvertently snap at a well-meaning colleague, I can have my coffee in a weekend mug.

It’s the little things.